Millennium Review April 2012

[CarolinaMamma]

I intend to get a photo slideshow up on YouTube, but here is my review of our recent cruise.

 

Celebrity millennium Review

5-Day Western Caribbean, April 2, 2012

 

About Us and Why We Chose This Cruise

We are a couple in our early 40s, and cruised with our three children, ages 12, 8 and 5. We had cruised in the mid to late ‘90s on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. We actually chose our 1998 Celebrity cruise with help from Cruise Critic back when CC was kind of new, and found Celebrity to be a good fit for us. We like to have fun, but are not party animals. Our dream vacation includes a lot of quiet reading time. We are foodies, to some degree, so good quality food is important to us. We also prefer a more subdued atmosphere and liked our fellow passengers on Celebrity.

 

A few months ago we booked a Celebrity cruise to Alaska for this coming August, choosing Celebrity over HAL because of the availability of the family veranda cabin, which has an amazing balcony and can hold our family of 5, and Celebrity’s restrictive smoking policy. My husband really needed a break from work and did not think he could wait until August. This cruise was during our spring break and we got a great deal at the last minute.

Summary

Beautiful ship, tastefully decorated, lots of quiet places to read, excellent service, classy fellow passengers, great food!

 

Ship

The décor was subdued and sophisticated, with lots of quiet, comfy places to hang out. This was one of the last cruises before dry dock and solsticization. There was some minor wear and tear, such as stained carpets in places, but overall she is still a beautiful ship. The ship never felt crowded, with the possible exception of the pool on the first sea day and the Cova Café when the a cappella quartet was singing. Some have expressed concerns about extra cabins being added during solsticization, but I think the ship will absorb the extra passengers with no problems.

 

Embarkation and disembarkation were both very organized and efficient. I could not believe how quickly we got on and off the ship. It did not feel chaotic at all. Overall, we got the feeling the staff was very well organized, hardworking and on top of things, from helping passengers find where they needed to go to constantly cleaning everywhere.

Cabin

We were in two concierge class cabins slightly forward of midship on Deck 8, kids in one and dh and I in the one next door. This was our first time in a balcony cabin or being so high, and you definitely feel more motion higher up! I appreciated the extra space in the CC cabin. The bathroom was small, but the corner shelves by the sink and in the shower provided plenty of storage, and we didn’t even need the space under the sink. The shower had good water pressure, although there was no hot water at 6 a.m. on debarkation day. The Elemis spa products provided had a “unisex” lemon grass scent, so if you are not too picky about your products, you could save some packing weight by leaving your shower gel and shampoo at home.

 

Our room attendant, Mary, from Jamaica, took good care of us. She brought my kids cookies instead of the usual afternoon canapés, and when they wrote her notes, she would write back to them. She also gave them some extra chocolates on the last night, which they were thrilled to receive!

 

We took advantage of the ship’s pressing services. We left some shirts and a dress for our room attendant on the first evening and had them back the next day. The pricing was reasonable and it saved a lot of worries about perfect packing. I will definitely use this service again.

 

There has been some discussion on the Celebrity board about whether the Concierge Class perks are worth the extra money. I appreciated them, but am not sure I would pay more for them. There was the sparkling wine, which we didn’t drink, the fruit, which was nice to have but we just didn’t find ourselves very hungry between meals, the robes, which we barely used. I took a tip from the Celebrity board and asked for a cheese plate instead of the afternoon canapés, and it was much better! Probably the best things about concierge class on M class are the extra space in the cabin and the expanded breakfast menu. I understand that on S class, you also get footstools on the balcony, which might make it worthwhile for some.

Food

 

Breakfast

Buffet – The breakfast buffet on Deck 10 was HUGE and had everything one could possibly want for breakfast. If you are going there for the first time, take a stroll around first, because the good stuff is at the back. On the starboard side there is a poached eggs station with about six different kinds of poached eggs. There are also waffles and an omelet station. Our kids loved the waffles and French toast. My husband and I had lox every morning. I had low expectations for the coffee, but it was okay. It was fairly strong and the only type of cream provided was those tiny plastic containers. I had to put about 4 or 5 of them in my coffee. A carafe of half and half would have been nice. The buffet was most crowded right before disembarkation on port days, so if you can get there a little early on port days, you will probably have an easier time.

 

Cova Café –This is the only place on board, other than the MDR, where you can get a latte or cappuccino, so we stopped there at least twice a day. They also have little pastries in the morning, which are free. The service in the Cova Café was excellent. The baristas got to know us quickly and were used to us ordering lattes in pairs, so the second morning when I walked down to get my latte, they asked if I wanted two. On the third morning I walked down to the Cova and the pastry lady greeted me by name even though I had not been to her counter or ordered any pastries in the past. She knew me from my kids, even though I had always stood way back while they ordered their own pastries. I told her the kids were still sleeping and I was going to surprise them with some pastries. She told me what they liked and prepared a plate for me to take upstairs to them. Very sweet!

 

Room Service – We ordered room service on the last sea day, which was also the big brunch day. We ordered our breakfast to come earlier than the kids’ breakfast so that we could let them sleep in their cabin while we had a quiet breakfast on the balcony. I had the scrambled eggs with asparagus spears from the concierge menu, and dh had eggs over easy and sausage. We had ordered the breakfast for 7:30-8. It arrived right at 7:30 and everything was nice and hot. The kids loved their breakfast, too.

 

Brunch – This was in the MDR on the last sea day from 10-1. We went around noon and it was slammed. We could not find a place to sit, but finally found our waiter who cleared a table for us. There was tons and tons of food, all very good, and beautiful carvings and displays. Dh especially enjoyed the salmon. We probably picked a bad time to go, but maybe it is less crowded earlier in the day.

 

Lunch

Buffet – Again, there was something for everyone. Lots of fresh fruits, veggies and salads, a carving station, pasta station, sandwich station, burgers, pizza, Asian and Indian food, sometimes Mexican food. We were usually there around 12-12:30 and it was not too crowded.

 

MDR – We did lunch in the MDR on the first sea day, thinking that the buffet was going to be crowded. It felt a little like they were dissuading us at the door, saying, “You know there is a buffet upstairs, right?” The service was very, very slow and the menu somewhat limited, but we were all able to find something we liked. I probably would not do it again though. It took too long.

Dinner

We had dinner in the MDR every night but one. Having read about how the food quality had declined since the ‘90s, and understanding the realities of preparing food for 2,000 people, I went in prepared to accept mediocrity, but was pleasantly surprised! Most of the food was really good. I was especially wary of beef, knowing it can be cooked incorrectly or overdone when being prepared for so many people. Both of the times I ordered beef cooked medium-rare, it was absolutely perfect, tender and juicy! The soups we tried were all really good. The salads were a bit small for my taste, but good. We were able to order espresso drinks after dinner, which we appreciated. Our waiter, Magdiel, took great care of us. Our table did not make it easy for him, as we were a ten-top with three different families, who arrived at different times. Magdiel and his assistant handled it all graciously and never seemed put out when people arrived half an hour late, even though that made the food fetching difficult. He treated my five year old daughter like a princess and often brought her food early so she would not have to wait for us to finish our first and second courses.

 

We skipped dinner in the MDR and opted for the buffet one night so that we could watch a beautiful sunset sail away that was right at our dinnertime. The sunset was, indeed, breathtaking, but I think if we skip the MDR again we will go for room service or a specialty restaurant instead, because the buffet at dinnertime was disappointing. I can’t put my finger on it, the food was similar to lunch with the addition of some not-so-good sushi, but it seemed a let down after the MDR.

 

Beverages

First, let me just say that beverage packages are the best thing ever! We only drink about one drink per day, if that, so we opted for the premium non-alcoholic package. Yes, we got our money’s worth drinking espresso drinks and San Pellegrino, but that is not why the package was so good. It is just very freeing not to think “ka-ching!” every time you order a drink. Not having to think about whether it was “worth it” to get another $6.00 fancy water made the cruise feel so much more like a vacation.

 

I had a martini from the martini bar one night and it was absolutely delicious! I will have to try more of those next cruise! The kids enjoyed a “mocktail” every night and felt so grown up.

 

One little peeve I have about the beverages, though, is that if you are drinking anything other than water or wine in the MDR, it seems to take an inordinately long time to get your drink. Sodas and cocktails require your water to go get a “bar waiter” so it’s not like being in a restaurant where you can just order a Diet Coke and get it right away, you have to ask specifically for the drink, hand over your sea pass card and wait. It just feels too “separate” from the dining experience. I wish Celebrity would integrate bar service into restaurant service in a more seamless way.

Entertainment

We went to the opening night show, which was a revue featuring all of the musical groups on board, and the production cast show, IBroadway. Both were very good. There was plenty of seating in the theater.

 

Our favorite, and the favorite of many on board, was the a Cappella group, Full Tilt! Boy, were they good! They sang in the Cova Café almost every night and it was standing room only. The last night, Full Tilt did a concert up in the Cosmos lounge and every seat was full.

 

We also enjoyed Randy Heidema, the sing-along piano player who did a variety of music including sets of Beatles and Billy Joel. The guitarist/vocalist was good, too.

 

We did the galley tour on the first sea day, which was interesting. We watched the crew talent show on the last sea day. We watched the Celebrity Star Chef Challenge, which was hilarious. I got to be one of the tasters/judges. Fun experience and my 8 year old loved it, too.

Kid Stuff

This cruise was a surprise for our kids. We told them the day before we were leaving that we were going to Florida, but did not tell them about the cruise. On the day of the cruise, we made up a story about how we were “upgrading” our hotel room and had to check out of the hotel, kill some time and come back later. We told them that we were going to the “Miami Martini Museum,” which might be kind of lame for them, but that they would have to sit quietly while the parents drank martinis, and if it wasn’t fun for them, they were just going to have to deal, because Dad really needed a vacation and some martinis. They totally bought it! Then as we were driving over the bridge to the Port of Miami and could see the cruise ships, I said, “Remember how I told you we are staying ‘right on the water,’ well, we are going to be staying RIGHT ON THE WATER.” Then I told them the Miami Martini Museum doesn’t exist, and finally they caught on and were thrilled.

 

Our kids have never cruised before. We wanted to wait until they were all old enough to politely sit through a long dinner in the MDR, and no one needed afternoon naps or all the paraphernalia you have to bring for babies and toddlers. Our youngest is 5, so they were ready!

 

Celebrity will let you book the kids in their own room if the rooms are right next to each other. We did this, and it worked out fine. They are all really good sleepers though, and the oldest is 12, so can keep an eye on the younger two. Our five year old slept on the couch, not folded out, so that there would be more room to walk around. We brought lanyards and had guest relations punch holes in all our sea pass cards. We also had them make us extra keys for the kids’ room so that we could get in without knocking.

 

Every day in our daily we got activity cards that showed what was scheduled for the kids’ and teens’ age groups, so we could plan our day. The kids are supposedly grouped into 3-5 year olds, 6-8 year olds, 9-11 year olds and teens 12-14 and 15-17. I don’t think they always kept them separated in these groups though, which is something you may be interested to know if you have a three year old. I am not a fan of wide ranges of ages when the groups are large.

 

The Fun Factory is open and free from 9-12, 2-5 and 7-10, and there are “lunch party,” “Dinner party,” and “Slumber Party” options from 12-2, 5-7 and 10-12 respectively that cost $6 per hour per child. We did not use any of these, but saw that at dinner there was a kids’ section of the buffet with chicken nuggets, pasta and burgers.

 

There were 600 kids on this sailing, probably because it was the week before Easter. Although the Fun Factory staff seemed competent, I just do not think the kids’ club was set up to handle this many children. I think the staff was forced into “putting out fires” mode, and I heard “One, two, three Zip It!” many times when they were ineffectively trying to get the kids to be quiet. We saw a group of about 30 6-8 year olds parading around the ship on some sort of activity. The staff was using proper safety procedures, with one staffer in front, another in the middle, and another in back, holding the hand of a boy who seemed to need a little extra help, but I think 30 kids in a group is too many when you don’t know the kids well. I would not want to send a kid who is very young, very shy or has any kind of special needs into such a large group. The kids club is getting much smaller after Solsticization, so I would have real concerns about putting my kids in there when there are so many other kids on board. They really need to subdivide the kids and make additional spaces available.

 

We like to do things with our kids, and are not he type of parents who want to dump them in the kids’ club all day and go drinking, so we just didn’t use the kids’ club much. My five year old girl loved the kids’ club and says she wants to spend more time there on our next cruise. My introverted 8 year old boy was not a fan. He went for a little while the first day and said, “I watched some kids playing video games and saw a lot of people getting time outs.” From then on, he preferred to hang out with us, which was fine. We read, went on the galley tour, saw the crew talent show and hung out by the pool.

 

There were a few teen activities during the day, but the main activities ran from 8 p.m. to midnight, so early dinner seating works best if you have a teen who wants to partake. Our 12 year old liked most of the teen activities, and was usually in a rush to get done with dinner so he could get to them. Well, I don’t know if it was the activities he liked so much or the opportunity to be with other kids his age. He also loved the independence he had on the ship and explored every place he could. He is an avid reader and was excited to go to the library the first day, but said the book selection was “lame.” Fortunately he had brought enough reading material on his kindle.

 

There was a Junior Cruisers’ Talent Show on the last sea day that was an excruciating hour and forty-five minutes and, let’s say, a prime example of what 25 years of empty praise and boosting self esteem has done for American children. Sure, there were some talented kids, and I realize they are KIDS, but did they really need to let a kid “play piano” who had never had a piano lesson and was just banging notes like a toddler (she was 11). Did they need to indulge my 5 year old, who has never hula hooped before, in her own hula hoop number? She would have been happy to do a group dance or song, really! And the many tweens singing inaudibly with a record…sorry to sound cold hearted, but if they have that many kids, they should have tryouts, pick the ones with some actual talent, and get the rest of them into some group numbers so that the show can be kept to an hour. My 8 year old, who DOES take piano lessons, really did enjoy getting to play in such a large theater though. And I loved the ten year old who could solve a Rubick’s cube with one hand!

 

Despite the overcrowded fun factory, our kids had a really, really good time and can’t wait til their next cruise! If you are looking to leave your kids in the kids’ club every day, though, you might consider another line that dedicates more space to the kids’ club.

What We Loved

 

The service! Really great all around. Staff was pleasant, friendly, nice to our kids, called us by name.

 

The ship! Beautiful, tasteful, never felt crowded.

 

No announcements! We really appreciated not having them try to sell us stuff all day. Made for a much more peaceful cruise.

 

The restrictive smoking policy! There is nothing worse than going out on your balcony for some fresh air and smelling yucky smoke! Thank you, Celebrity, for restricting smoking to certain areas!

 

The food! There is truly something for everyone and lots to choose from.

 

The Beverage Package! Made it feel so much more like a vacation!

 

Fellow Passengers! Diverse mix of really nice people, mostly well-behaved kids. None of the “tackiness” that is sometimes seen on other lines or in other vacation spots.

 

 

Opportunities for Improvement

(I must emphasize that these are MINOR to us – we still had a fabulous cruise and these little things in no way ruined the experience for us.)

 

When large groups of kids are sailing, Celebrity should subdivide kids into smaller groups for better supervision. The groups on our cruise were just too big, no matter what the staff to kid ratio. Also, shorten the kids’ talent show to an hour by adding group numbers!

 

Replace the afternoon canapés in concierge class with something better. They are just not good.

 

A bar waiter served my husband a Hefeweizen beer without a glass. This is a big no-no because of sediment that can be on the bottom of the bottle with this type of beer, so s little training is needed.

 

Would like a thermal carafe of half and half instead of little plastic containers of creamer.

 

Celebrity could make a killing if they made espresso drinks available in more locations on the ship, such as the breakfast buffet on deck 10.

 

Would like to see more seamless integration of bar service in the MDR.

 

Celebrity could increase their revenue from photos if they would be more in touch with their customers’ wants and let people buy the digital rights to individual photos. The only way we could get a CD with our photos on it was to buy a “package” of 15 8X10’s with a cheesy Celebrity border for $149, then pay an extra $50 for the CD. I don’t think so. What are we going to do with a bunch of 8X10s? Make a Celebrity gallery in our hallway? They didn’t even HAVE 15 pictures of us, and many of the pictures they did have were not good, but some could have been better if I could have cropped, color-adjusted or photoshopped them a little. If they would have offered the digital rights for, say $20 or $30 per picture, I would have bought some, but with a $200 minimum to get a CD that had maybe 3 pictures that I wanted, they made no money from us on pictures.

[junglejane]

Thanks for doing such a thorough, thoughtful review. :)

[Andy]

Hi CarolinaMamma,

 

Thanks very much for your outstanding and informative review. I loved the trick you played on your children. It's a wonderful surprise, and something right up my alley :)

 

 

I hope you submit your review to the Members Cruise Review section :

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreviewform.cfm?ShipID=167

 

Glad to hear you & your family had a great Cruise on Millennium. Welcome home !

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[TeaBag]

Thank you for posting your review. Stick with Celebrity till you get to Elite and you will get free espresso/cappuccino at the elite breakfast.

[loubetti]

Nice review, but you really missed out not dining in the Olympic restaurant (though it is really not for children). The meal there was only equaled by Todd English on QM2, and would be considered high-end by land-based standards too. The decor makes it the finest specialty restaurant at sea. You're basically dining aboard Titanic!

[Phxazzcruisers]

Great review, thanks. Will be back on the !illenium at end of May. One comment, we agree that the canapés are not to our liking. The room attendant has always been more than happy tomsubstitutenwith a cheese plate each evening, just ask !!!

[cruiser82]

Thank you. Great layout, great information and a great review!

[sarafinadh]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do such a thorough review! We sail the Millennium in July so I was especially interested in your experience.

[CarolinaMamma]

Nice review, but you really missed out not dining in the Olympic restaurant (though it is really not for children). The meal there was only equaled by Todd English on QM2, and would be considered high-end by land-based standards too. The decor makes it the finest specialty restaurant at sea. You're basically dining aboard Titanic!

 

Thanks for the feedback. We are planning to dine in the SS United States (without kids) on Infinity this summer. I looked and the menus for Olympic and SS United States seem to be the same. This was such a short cruise and the fun factory was so crowded, we thought it best to eat with our kids on this cruise. But, come August, we will try the amazing food, although in a differently decorated venue!

[CarolinaMamma]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do such a thorough review! We sail the Millennium in July so I was especially interested in your experience.

 

Be sure and visit Cafe al Baccio. The servers In the Cova are all very excited about the transition from Cova to Cafe al Baccio and most are staying on board after dry dock. Such nice people!

[cruiser82]

I do have one question if you don't mind. Is there a place onboard to order a milkshake?

[AviGirl]

Great review, CarolinaMamma! :)

[CarolinaMamma]

I do have one question if you don't mind. Is there a place onboard to order a milkshake?

 

I don't know for sure, but I did take some ice cream from the buffet out to the aft bar one night and ask them to make me a blended cocktail with it, and they happily obliged. There is always ice cream in the buffet from lunch through dinner.

 

After solsticizatiion, Cafe al Bacio will have gelato, milk and blenders all in close proximity, so I'm sure it could be done.

 

For a healthier option, they also offer smoothies. I have not had them but heard they are good.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Thanks for your review. Glad to hear you had such a great time.

 

Strange you couldn't find half & half at the coffee stations. I've always found it there. I don't use it in my coffee, but do like a little on my muesli. When you can't find something you would like, just ask the nearest staffer. Sometimes they've moved it, on rare occasions they may be out, but they're always glad to help you out.